Burney's Bytes will focus primarily on the local preps sports scene, but will also touch on some college and pro athletics, mostly in regards to athletes who hail and have played high school sports in Oakland County. My goal for the blog is to be conversational and anecdotal, a more relaxed and free formal take on high school athletics than you see in regular game day coverage.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Burney's Baseball Rankings - April Showers

Burney's OC Prep Baseball Top 10 - Late April 2011

1Birmingham Brother Rice; You can't stop freshman phenom Matt Ruppenthal, you can only hope to contain him

2Lake Orion; Sophomore hurler Nick Deeg is a SUPERSTAR in the making

3 (tie)MH Bishop Foley; Zoom Zoom, The Schalk Boyz, and Bret 'Mayday' Sunde are SO DANGEROUS on the diamond, Burney gets chills just thinking about them

3 (tie)MH Lamphere; The most prolific front end of a batting order in the area, highlighted by leadoff genius Mitch Kozlwoski, ultra-steady Ryan Horvath and the GOLDEN BOY himself Greg 'G-Bomb' Fettes in the clean-up spot

4Clarkston; Dustin Peck for president!!!

5Troy Athens; Anthony Carillo is CRAZY GOOD!!!

6WL Central; The experience factor with this group is overwhelming, will payoff come state tourney time

7 (tie)RH Adams; Is there really any question that Adams will be in the thick of things come late next month?.......I don't think so

7 (tie)Stoney Creek; Cougars are one of the best hitting teams in Metro Detroit….and you can take that 2 THE BANK!!!

8BH Andover – I'm going to start calling Gabe Berman, 'Gabe the Babe', cause this kid has a Ruth-like presence in the local prep baseball scene

9Birmingham Seaholm – Brand new skipper Dan Drapal is doing one heck of a job getting the Maples off and running in 2012…..Derek Amboyen could wind up being Burney's MVP this year, he has Miggie-esque capability in the carry-a-team-on-his-back department.

10 (tie)Birmingham Groves – There are some real hidden gems on this Falcons roster and I'm not just talking about Mike Mestdagh

10(tie) - AH Avondale; Don't test 'Jackets catcher Mitch Robinson on the base paths 'cause he'll gun you down like his name was Joe Mauer

About Me

Scott M. Burnstein grew up in Bloomfield Hills and attended school at Birmingham Roeper, where he earned multiple varsity letters in both basketball and baseball, and has been following the local preps scene since the 1980's. Mr. Burnstein attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he received a bachelors of arts degree in political science, and the John Marshall Law School, in Chicago, Illinois, where he got his Juris Doctrate. He has covered high school sports for both the Detroit Free Press and the Oakland Press, and is the author of the 2007 regional best-selling book, The Motor City Mafia - A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit, Family Affair - Greed, Treachery, and Betrayal in The Chicago Mafia (2010), Mafia Prince - The Crazy Phil Leonetti Story (2012) and The Detroit True Crime Chronicles (2013).